Australian Open and Eurosport serve up landmark broadcast deal

By Ausopen

Tennis Australia and Eurosport announced today an extension and expansion of their long-term broadcast relationship to 2021.

Commencing in January 2017, the new agreement grants Eurosport exclusive media rights to the following events in more than 100 territories in Europe and French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa:

• Australian Open
• Hopman Cup, Perth
• Brisbane International (men’s matches)
• Apia International Sydney (men’s matches)
• World Tennis Challenge, Adelaide

“The Australian Open is much more than just the first Grand Slam of the year,” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said.

“It marks the start of the global annual sporting calendar through four weeks of world class events during Australia’s summer of tennis. As such, we are delighted to have taken our relationship with Eurosport and the Discovery Group to a new level.

“Fans will now be able to follow in one place the exciting journey we take every year – from Brisbane and Perth, Sydney to Adelaide and culminating in Melbourne at the Australian Open. As viewing habits consolidate through multiple screens, compelling engagement through online platforms is at the heart of this new deal. We’ll deliver fans more and better content than ever before, both on and off the court, when and where they want it.”

Peter Hutton, CEO Eurosport, said: “The Australian Open is a lynchpin in Eurosport’s extensive portfolio of leading tennis properties and has been so for more than 20 years. Eurosport is dedicated to securing exclusive content and also building and amplifying key existing partnerships, as we are doing with Tennis Australia by securing additional live rights that give the channel a whole month of exclusive top class tennis. This helps Eurosport tell a compelling story and, along with planned improvements in our on-site production, will result in an exciting viewing experience for tennis fans.”

The new deal promises around 300 hours of live coverage on Eurosport’s TV channels and, for the first time, live online coverage of available matches from each event as produced by Tennis Australia – including up to 16 simultaneous live match courts from the Australian Open.

To support the extensive live match coverage Tennis Australia will produce quality original programming content from October each year, including match highlights, player, tournament and city profiles, best-of, behind the scenes and more.

In 2016 tennis fans will enjoy the most comprehensive Australian Open coverage on Eurosport, with all available matches live on Eurosport Player, Eurosport’s home of online broadcast.

This follows the best ever coverage for Roland Garros and US Open tournaments on the channel in 2015. Roland Garros attracted record ratings in France and the most watched tennis match ever on British Eurosport. Up to 15 courts were also available on the Eurosport Player.